The Good Turian
by Bugsie70
Summary: On a reconnaissance mission to scout a Batarian slavers compound and assist with the recovery of some kidnapped Turian colonists, a young Garrus Vakarian discovers that not all Turians share his values or code of conduct.
1. The hut

Hi Everyone! First I'd like to start with an apology to all those who have been following my other stories, I'm sorry I havent got back to them, I get a little ambitious with the story arcs then lose momentum. However I promise that this one is complete and will post all chapters as quickly as I can. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have enjoyed writing it!

Heads up to LovgrenO fellow Clan V member - its his artwork posted on DeviantArt that became my inspiration for writing this little story. I dont think I can directly link to it from here but his first little piece is entitled "Garrus - first love" (Although I maintain that Garrus's first love is his sniper rifle!) the second is another that spurred me to continue - "Turian couple". Head on over to DA and give him an encouraging comment or two. Its all clean stuff, if you're worried about the word Deviant in the website title, don't be, all mature content has a warning, and most of the website has some truly amazing artwork and is well worth the visit. Plus he told me he's all to shy for anything naughtier! I'm hoping what I've written will inspire him to do more!

Also to Aricle - also a fellow Clan V member for kindly Beta reading this for me, her valuable editing skills and comments are much appreciated!

I dedicate this to all those who love and adore (both guys and girls) the one and only Garrus Vakarian.

Authors note: Mass Effect, Garrus and the ME Universe in which the story is set all belong to Bioware. What is left belongs to me and my imagination.

I have written this intended for an adult audience, any depiction of sex is done in a Harlequin Blaze style which are freely available in many department stores so in my eyes suitable for an M rating. It is also rated M for language. If either of these offends you please do not read any further.

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* * *

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Garrus stood in the main battery staring into the console in contemplation. The conversation that just transpired between him and Shepard – did that really happen? She had responded to his bawdy story with a come on of her own, and he'd responded, as any male would, with much enthusiasm. He raked his talons down the side of his uninjured mandibles and closed his eyes.

"_I haven't thought about that in a long time. A long…long time." _

* * *

The scout ship came down about a mile and half away from the batarian base. This meant the group would be travelling through the uncomfortably dense jungle that surrounded it. To have come any closer meant alerting the batarians to their presence. The reconnaissance team consisted of three junior officers, all experienced but young, two of them recon scout specialists, Aelia Goran and Pen Saies, both 20, the other, weapons specialist Garrus Vakarian, 22 and two young raw recruits fresh from basic training and barely off their home worlds, Krae Wate, 16 and Corvan Wen, 17.

Garrus wasn't happy about being here but as he was effectively the group's leader, he was very conscious of the job that lay before them. The Captain, Rael Mikras, had been sending him out with the scouts more and more such that during the last nine missions he had been assigned scouting detail.

Altogether there were four recon scouts. Besides Goran and Saies the other two scouts were Caius Flavian, 27, and Sancius Terentius, 22. Flavian was the oldest of the group and the most experienced. Flavian had been the scouts' default leader and was several citizenship tiers above all of them. Garrus had great admiration for him due to his thoroughness and professionalism; he also had a low tolerance for bullshit. Terentius never spoke much but when he did it was usually laced with innuendo; they had an undemanding friendship and had worked well together.

Although Garrus was often sent as a backup, it seemed whenever he went out with the younger scouts they put him in charge. Initially this had not been an issue, he had gotten into a routine of friendly banter with Saies and this had continued throughout their missions together. However, with Goran, it was troubled from the start. She seemed to resent his presence and his authority. She had become more snarky with each successive mission – especially when he made tactical suggestions. She often tried to goad him about being so 'turian'; the term had rolled off her tongue like it was a dirty word, he could ignore her, although he wanted to lash out at times.

On every mission that he had served with her, there had been some sort of issue between them, and he knew this one wouldn't be any different. He was concerned, primarily because he and all the crew knew this was a high risk mission; the fact was, innocent turian colonists were in the mix, and it put him on edge. Captain Mikras made it clear to him that if the recon team alerted the batarians to their presence there would be hell to pay; civilian lives were at stake, so it was even more important that it went smoothly, in and out and back on the Nimines as quickly as possible. Captain Mikras was not pleasant to be around when people fucked up.

They moved out with the two scouts in the lead, followed by the younger recruits and Garrus at the rear.

"What do you reckon, Krae?" Wen nudged Wate with his gun.

"Mmm, maybe, she does keep looking at Tren and Truillo like they're some sort of fresh meat, but I had figured she batted for the other side."

"What does that mean?" Wen asked.

"You have led a sheltered life, Corvan" and he laughed loudly. "It means our XO prefers the company of turians who aren't like you and me."

"What, new recruits?"

"No - young hot blooded turian males."

"You mean she prefers…."

"Yes, dumb ass, that's what she prefers."

Garrus weighed in on the conversation. "If the two of you are going to continue with this discussion about XO Camillius, I'll have you on report, now shut up and walk."

"Spirits, Vakarian." Aelia spoke from the front of the group "Can't you remove that stick from your ass? They're just speculating about what all of us already know."

The two recruits snickered; Garrus bristled, _here we go_, he thought, but said nothing.

They continued walking in silence, pushing on through the dense foliage until they eventually came to a small clearing that appeared to lead into a larger one. Garrus ordered them to stop before moving any further forward. Pen Saies looked down at the ground before them.

"What do you think, Aelia?" He pointed to a set of tracks ahead, "They look turian to me."

"Maybe - looks like a lot of people went through here, I can see a few turian tracks – possibly our kidnapped colonists. But why would they land here? It's still over a mile to the base, isn't it?"

"Just under I think, Aelia." Pen replied.

"Why are we stopping here?" Wate whined loudly from behind.

Garrus ignored him and moved over to look at the tracks they were examining. "A lot of pirates and slavers don't like to have their landing zones too close to their compounds, usually that means that they're not heavily fortified. If you have no landing space then you can't be taken by surprise, that's one bit of news the Captain will like, but it does mean we're going to have to find some way to get troops closer without alerting them, and of course some way for ourselves to get around."

"That doesn't make sense Vakarian, they could be like us and land over a mile away and sneak up on them just like we are or move into the surrounding jungle just outside the clearing, or we could have done this at night." Aelia said.

"Any more than 10 of us 'sneaking' as you say, they'd easily spot, especially heavily armed adolescent turian soldiers who can't seem to keep from jabbering." He looked to Wen and Wate, "Even with 5 of us we have to be careful. They'll have experienced snipers trained on anyone unknown moving into that clearing as well being on the lookout for patterns of movement in the surrounding undergrowth within the next 800 yards. At night they could have night vision equipment; we'd be lit up like a nightclub. If I let you move forward," he pointed to where the tracks went, "There is no doubt our mission will hit critical failure."

Aelia gave a derisive snort, "Have you listened to yourself lately?" her voice deepened to mock him. "Our mission will hit critical failure…." She laughed, Garrus regard her tone with a disdainful look and she continued. "Ok then Vakarian, what are we supposed to do in the next 800 yards?"

"You're the trained scout Goran, perhaps you could make the first move across the clearing, you never know, you might find your temperament will improve with a hole in the middle of your forehead." Garrus retorted his voice dripping with sarcasm and annoyance.

She scowled at him and he gave a satisfied smile before grabbing his sniper rifle and moving to the edge of the bigger clearing. He had a clear view through the scope and could see the edge of a smaller building around 600 yards away, not the edge of the compound itself, most likely a field hut, and possibly with munitions storage. _If we get to that, we could do some sabotage in the process_, he thought. He moved his scope up and could just see the top of the compound's western wall.

"I can just see the top of the compound – it's likely they have someone there, it's definitely not safe to move across the clearing. I suggest we split up…."

"Hang on a minute," Aelia interrupted "Like you said Vakarian, Pen and I are the scouts. Shouldn't we decide what the best ways forward are? We're the ones that are gathering info here – you're just here to provide some muscle should the need arise, which it hasn't so far."

"You might be the scout Goran, but the Captain put me in charge, I'm happy to listen to suggestions… if you have any that aren't going to get us killed, that is; so far it seems to be Pen who's done most of the scouting." He watched her mandibles flare and eyes narrow at his response; he could see that she was pissed.

"Look Vakarian, the Captain might have put you in charge, but you're not my superior officer or Pen's for that matter; these grunts maybe but not us."

Garrus turned to the other scout "Saies, what do you think we should do?"

Pen took a furtive glance at Aelia before answering. "I think we should split up."

Garrus gave another satisfied smile in Aelia's direction, "Goran –do you agree with your fellow scout?"

She mumbled a quiet yes but the look on her face was one of defiant anger - he could tell she wanted to punch him. Disturbingly, he found his satisfaction at winning the argument mixed with a strange attraction towards her. He shook his head, trying to remove that last idea from his mind.

"All right then – well move out in different directions and circle back round to the hut that's on the other side of the clearing – Saies, you take Wen," he pointed left, "Goran, you're with Wate." He pointed right. "And Goran, as you so wisely suggested, stay to just outside of the clearing, don't move too fast or you could be spotted." Each of the group acknowledged Garrus' plan.

"What are you doing, Garrus?" Pen asked.

"I'll stay here for the time being and watch your back through the scope, we're not using any comm channels so once I've seen you've all reached the hut, I'll follow. Stay put until I get there."

Garrus set himself up to watch the hut intently through the scope, occasionally moving up to the compound wall to see if he could discern any movement. Nothing, He was sure they'd have someone stationed there; he didn't like to second guess himself though, especially not in front of the scouts. After about 10 minutes he could see the group had made it to the hut and were sheltered from the view of the compound. He moved quickly but stealthily, it took less than the 10 minutes it had taken the others.

Aelia gave him a doubtful look, "Now that we're here, what's next? If the sniper is there on the western wall as you say then we can't move further than this building, now can we?"

Garrus ignored her question; Aelia's constant griping was starting to get to him. He poked his head around the corner pointing his rifle up towards the compound wall. It was another 300 yards away. He had a better view this time but could see there was no sniper; instead two batarians were walking along the top, occasionally stopping and talking to one another before resuming their patrol.

"There's two batarians patrolling up there, but they're pacing themselves so they may not be paying much attention to what's going on down here."

Aelia smirked, "So you were wrong then Vakarian, there's no sniper."

"There's batarians patrolling Goran, are you deaf? It's fairly likely at some point they are going to be looking this way." Garrus gave her a dagger look.

"Fine." She shrugged. "But I suggest Pen and I need to get some layout scans of the base of the compound, we can't do that sitting here, behind this…this…what the hell is this building?"

"I think it's a munitions hut and we might be able to sabotage it." Garrus said this almost absentmindedly; he could see the young recruits' eyes light up at the mention of the words munitions and sabotage and he instantly regretted using the two terms together.

An old wooden door was on the side of the building. Pen quietly opened it and the others followed him inside. The hut was small at only about 12 feet by 9 feet. It was crammed with munitions boxes, mostly small arms fire, a few grenades, along with six larger boxes housing heavy weapon ammo. In the corner was a table with a datapad, which Aelia picked up and started reading.

"It's a manifest." she gave a sudden gasp as her eyes scrolled through the information. "Pen, you're not going to believe this – it's actually got a layout of the facility!" she passed it to him.

"Schematics, patrol times, compound layout – even where they might be holding the colonists as prisoners, some idiot batarian guard must have left this here!" Pen's face lit up as he continued reading, "Strange though, some of it appears scrambled, we should get this back to the Nimines as soon as we can."

Garrus gave a grateful sigh; that meant they could leave and he wouldn't have to worry about having them covertly moving closer to the compound, and no more dealing with Aelia.

Aelia turned to Garrus "Well, Vakarian, we can leave, but perhaps we should blow this little hut up first…."

Both Wen and Wate shouted "Fuck yeah!"

Garrus turned to Aelia "Are you mad? We'd alert the whole compound. The Captain gave express orders we weren't to be seen."

"Spirits, if you were any further up the Captains ass I'd say you were his colon. You just said sabotage a minute ago – how can we sabotage and NOT blow the thing up? We can easily make it look like an accident, munitions stores blow up all the time."

Garrus ignored the insult and was trying to think quickly, "We could take some of the heavy weapons ammo with us, the small arms stuff, well…."

"You really are an idiot Vakarian, how are we going to be 'stealthy' moving across the jungle carrying six large heavy weapon ammo crates? What with a sniper at our back and all…." She turned to the two recruits and laughed; they both started to laugh with her but stopped when they caught the look in Garrus' eye.

"We're not blowing this up, Goran, and that's final."

"Okay, okay, keep your fringe on, old man." She replied. "We'll do it your way, but the quicker the better; I don't want to stay here for any longer than I have to."

Garrus was momentarily perplexed as that seemed way too easy a back down for her. "Nice to see you're so concerned, Goran, these are civilians we're here to help." She gave him a look that made her not appear to be concerned by that fact. Garrus was exasperated, he kept thinking, _doesn't she care at all about these people?_

Aelia was left behind to look in some of the crevices of the hut to see if she could find anything else of use. Wen and Wate took the first two crates and moved back around towards the smaller clearing, Garrus and Pen took the second two. When they got to the clearing Wen and Wate headed back for the remaining crates.

"We'll keep going and start taking these back to the scout ship," Garrus said.

It didn't take Wen and Wate long to get back to the scout ship, "Where's Goran?" Garrus said nervously.

"Goran is back with the remaining crates." Wate spoke. "Still think it's a bummer we can't blow the hut up." He was smiling and looked at Wen who was also grinning stupidly.

Garrus eyed them suspiciously and as Pen was about to head into the cockpit to prep the ship for flight he turned at Wate's words and gave Garrus a worried frown.

"Shit, shit shit!" Garrus swore loudly, and ran towards the clearing. He arrived to find Aelia sitting quietly on the crates.

Garrus pointed a talon at her accusingly, "You better not have Goran."

She waved her hand dismissively, "Relax, Vakarian." She was smiling at him. Every time she said his name Garrus wanted to strike her. She continued "You really need to relax that little uptight turian ass of yours."

_I have a punching bag with your face emblazoned on it waiting for me back on the Nimines Goran. _He wanted to say this to her, but instead held his face in a tight grimace.

"Well, let's get moving then." They grabbed the remaining crates and headed back to the scout ship.

After loading the ship, they moved into the scout ship's cabin, large enough to fit around eight people. Garrus sat facing Aelia. She was smiling at him and he watched her with pensive eyes, thinking about the turian colonists.

When they were airborne, Aelia spoke. "Hey, Vakarian, watch this." She pointed out the window of the ship.

Garrus looked in horror as he saw the little munitions hut blown sky high.


	2. At 10 paces

_Chapter 2_

_At 10 paces_

* * *

The scout ship landed in the Nimines docking bay without incident. If it were visible you might have seen the steam coming from Garrus's collar. He was so angry he couldn't even talk, he couldn't even respond to Aelia's maniacal laughing which was still ringing in his ears.

The scout ship door opened and he almost fell out, eager to remove himself from the docking bay and from _her_. But as he stepped out the Captain and XO were waiting. Neither of them appeared very happy. As the rest of the recon team stepped out of the shuttle Aelia stopped laughing and the previous wide grins of the recruits were replaced with anxious expressions.

The Captain began to bellow loudly, his face contorted with rage.

"What the fuck did you lot do? I told you explicitly, to get in, get out and not be seen. I said if they heard more than an insect fart from your team I would not be happy."

Aelia started to speak, "Captain…I…I…"

"Was I addressing you, Officer Goran?" He asked, her response a timid shake of the head.

"No that's fucking right, I'm addressing Officer Vakarian 8th tier Citizen, soon to be 7th tier Citizen."

Garrus's jaw was tight. "Captain, we came across a munitions store about a half mile from the compound. We thought we could blow it up, make it look like an accident, munitions accidents happen all the time… you know." His mind was racing, his father had taught him that if you take leadership you take the responsibility for the whole team, he was livid but he wasn't about to duck his accountability.

"You thought you'd blow it up, did you? Do you realise that since that happened the batarians have been in contact with several other batarian cruisers in the area? And those were the communications we've intercepted; Spirits knows how many other messages got out. Those damn cruisers could be on their way here NOW. Did you know that they might be moving the colonists somewhere else because of that little stunt you pulled? And that if we go in now they're likely to be ready for us and looking for trouble? By blowing that munitions hut up you also possibly blew up our element of surprise and the chance to save those civilians."

Garrus looked at the Captain and ignoring most of what he said, replied, "Captain, you said _possibly_ blew our element of surprise?"

Mikras pursed his mouth, his voice softening "Yes, possibly, it means that you might get away with your little bit of sabotage. There's lots of chatter but they haven't moved…yet. But it also means we can't move until we know what they're doing; we'll have to wait around for a few more days. When things have settled down we can either regroup and get moving and hopefully get those colonists out without incident or you lot will be facing disciplinary action. You better have something useful to show me for this Vakarian."

Pen moved forward, giving the datapad to the XO.

"What does it say Camillius?"

Camillius began reading and was nodding her head. "This is good Captain, it's the whole layout of the compound – there's lots here, have you read it all, Saies?"

"No, not yet, there seems to be some encryption on part of the data, I'm not sure why they would only encrypt part though and not the whole thing."

"We'll hand it over to Nasius, his team can deal with it now," the Captain replied.

"As for you three, you're confined to quarters for the next 24 hours. Dismissed."

Captain Makris moved out quickly from the docking bay. The XO addressed the junior officers.

"You lot are fucking lucky – you heard the Captain – the only place you're going now is your quarters. You will not stop to bathe or to eat, now fuck off, out of my sight." She turned to the recruits next and all Garrus heard as he stepped out through the docking bay doors was, "You little turds had a great time, didn't you? Well now it's time for the turds on this ship to have a great time, latrine duty for both of you."

Garrus stepped into his quarters, having moved quickly to get there, catching sight of neither Pen nor Aelia on the way. The cabin was small, only about 8 feet by 6 feet, and no window, but at least you didn't have to share sleeping space with any other of the Junior Officers.

He removed his armour placing it back into the specially moulded case under his bunk. His underwear, typical turian military-style black long johns and singlet top, was soaked with his sweat and he stunk like a varren in heat. But he didn't give a shit. This had to be the worst scouting mission he'd been on. Right now he was imagining putting his talons on Aelia's neck, squeezing and watching her pretty little tattooed face turn mottled. Spirits knows what his father would say to him if he dropped citizenship tiers.

He grabbed some dried rations he'd stored and opened the packet, more for need of nourishment rather than true hunger. His appetite was only for grievous bodily harm to a certain female turian. He wished for a moment that the military was restricted to males, but decided he liked having females around, _some_ of them anyway.

There weren't that many females on the Nimines; of the crew of about 100 around half were raw recruits, grunts starting their obligatory turian service through the military, with a third of those being female and most would transfer at some point to civilian duties. Then you had the junior officers about 35 in total, only 13 of those were female. Of the remaining senior officers, only two of the 12 were female, the XO and the navigator. Strictly going on percentage there were only about 30% females on the ship.

He remembered his time as a recruit – there were lots more women around then – many were pretty and demure, not surprising then that they moved quickly into civilian services, life in the military was crude. The females who stayed around were rougher, tougher, good fighters and soldiers like him. Once you got to senior officer level the women there were different again, scary different, maybe because he was still young and easily intimdated.

None of the females he had met in his seven years of military service he regarded as 'his type', but then again he didn't really know what 'his type' was. It didn't matter anyway, relationships, in terms of ongoing partnerships between the sexes, were discouraged, especially on small military ships. Although they were given a lot of personal freedoms, having time for a relationship meant you didn't have time to do your job, as the hierarchy often said.

Sex though, that was a different matter, the rules were simple enough; yes you can have sex, and there was lots of it around, some of the ships he had served on had been hotbeds, but you should be discreet. Discovery means punishment. Anyhow, why was he thinking about sex? He was still livid with Aelia's antics back on the scouting mission. He rubbed his eyes, at least 24 hrs of confinement meant lots and lots of sleep. He turned his bedside light off and lay down on the bunk. It was only a matter of minutes and he was asleep.

His slumber was disturbed by a pinging noise at his cabin door; the time was seven a.m., meaning he'd slept for 13 hours. He rose and opened it to find Caius Flavian standing there.

"Flavian, what are you doing here?"

"The Captain briefed me on what happened, thought I'd give you some rest before coming to see you," he looked Garrus up and down. "You stink."

"Thanks, well, haven't been allowed to wash yet, stuck here for another 10 hours."

"I got you out of that one, go and wash and we'll meet in the mess. I want your side of the story Vakarian."

"Ah…okay see you in 15 then." Garrus was slightly perplexed at Flavian's statement of getting him out of it, but felt grateful and grabbed his wash gear and a clean ship suit and headed down for a much needed shower.

As he walked down to the mess it was pretty clear that most of the crew had heard what happened, seeing as he got some pretty odd looks; he wasn't sure if it was confrontational though, no one said anything.

The mess only had a few of the junior officers scattered in a couple of small groups. He saw that Flavian was sitting with Terentius at the back of the hall.

Terentius nodded at Garrus as he sat down to join them. Flavian spoke first.

"Vakarian, I know it wasn't you who blew that munitions hut up." Terentius nodded in agreement. "The Captain knows that too."

Garrus looked at Flavian "What do you mean?"

"What I mean is, he knows, as you, I and Terentius here know, Goran is a loose cannon. She's an excellent scout, a good soldier, an even better fighter, but she's got a chip on her shoulder so big I don't think she has a shoulder anymore."

"Well, I don't know what I can do about that, Flavian. I have no skills in interpersonal counselling."

"Well you have to do something."

"Why? I'm not her superior officer, as she has reminded me time and time again. I might be put in charge of missions but I don't outrank her. Why don't you speak to her? Or Terentius, or perhaps one of the senior officers?" he could see Terentius shaking his head.

"Well, technically I don't outrank her either…yet, and the senior officers have more pressing things to worry about."

"But she'll listen to you."

"Look the situation is this…I'm not going to be here much longer…."

Garrus interrupted, "You're leaving?"

Flavian continued, "Yes, I've been promoted. I'm going to Palaven for a short while before they reassign me to a new ship."

"Does that mean a new scout?"

"Yes, we've got our eye on one of the enlisted recruits, she's young but she's shown talent for scouting and the Captain is going to reassign her to scouting team after we've finished up here. That's when I'll be leaving, too. Terentius is going to be training her."

Terentius smiled at this, "She's pretty cute, too."

Flavian laughed, "More than I can say for most of the females on this ship. Seriously though, the Captain made it clear to me that you'll be assigned to every scouting mission Goran is on and you'll be in charge. He says if you are taking the responsibility, as you did for the munitions explosion, then you're to take responsibility for her as punishment, you were the one in command."

"If I'm in charge of her for every mission still doesn't mean she'll listen to me, that's continuing punishment. She has a good rapport with Pen perhaps he could…"

Flavian interrupted "No, not Pen. He's good at his job, but he has no command presence; it has to be you Vakarian. The Captain wants it dealt with sooner rather than later, which means before we go smash those batarian slaver scum."

Garrus rubbed his hand over his face, "I guess I have no choice then."

"That's right, no choice."

"I don't think I can do it right now, I'm just as likely to beat her up as want to listen to her and any 'problems' she has."

"That's okay, you've got the next eight hrs to think it through before you have a chat with little Aelia Goran. Senior staff wants you down in the main battery. You're good at calibrations, aren't you?"

Garrus was grateful for the distraction. Yes, he was good at this, and it kept his mind occupied. Occasionally, thoughts of what happened down on the planet came to forethought but he dismissed them and moved onto the next lot of firing algorithms. After eight and a half hours he finished his shift and wandered back up to the mess hall. He still had little appetite but went anyway.

The mess was full, no sign of any of the scouts. _Good_, he thought, no sign of Aelia. Most of the junior officers had finished their shifts and were eagerly packed in. Food here wasn't too bad, the senior officers had their own cooks; he'd gotten friendly with one of them over a few card games and he had occasionally given Garrus some leftovers, mainly as payment for losing bets, it was welcome though, not much could be done with credits here apart from squirreling them away.

He grabbed a few morsels and a drink then headed on down to his cabin. He wasn't sleepy – a bit of exercise was probably in order, a good way to blow off some steam. He changed into his training gear, black leggings and a loose fitting singlet top, and went down to the lower deck of the ship.

Training rooms for all the crew were here. Junior and senior officers shared training facilities. The enlisted recruits had their own space. He often came down at this time, when most were eating – usually only a few officers were here. Today when he came in there was only one other junior officer and XO Camillius running hard on a treadmill.

Garrus was a creature of habit; he did his usual routine, several rounds of weights followed by a 40 minute solid cardio. He liked to round the session off with a sparring session if he could, but his regular partner Joram, one of the largest turians he had ever known, had recently been transferred, so he concentrated on the punching bag. He did need to keep his sparring up but until he got a new partner this would have to suffice.

He was concentrating on kicking when Aelia walked in. She was wearing her training gear as well, tight black leggings, but her singlet top was tight accentuating her waist. She immediately walked over to him.

"Agh, finally free, hate being cooped up," she said nonchalantly. Garrus ignored her and kept kicking.

"What's up Vakarian?"

"As you can see, Goran, I'm a little preoccupied right now. Why don't you get started and concentrate on your own workout." His kicks and punches were increasing in tempo as he spoke to her.

"What crawled up your ass and died?"

Garrus stopped kicking "You seem to be fixated on my ass, Goran. You mention it time and time again. But if you must know, your attitude crawled up there and I'm looking for an enema to flush the bastard out."

She started laughing, "Wait, am I right here in saying that you're pissed at me for what happened? Because you got the blame? I was happy to take it, Vakarian, I just never got the opportunity – you took it from me, the Captain will be thanking us later."

He looked over at her, his teeth were clenched and the anger came flooding out, "I told you that we weren't going to blow that hut up yet you set the charges and did it anyway. I took the blame because what happened down there was my responsibility. I'm pissed because what you did was reckless and irresponsible."

"Oh how honourably turian of you, Vakarian." Aelia shook her head an irritated look on her face.

Garrus moved up close, his face now only inches from hers.

"I'm sick of your bullshit, Goran. The Captain put me in charge and he'll continue to put me in charge because he can't trust a fool like you. If the batarians leave, then those colonists could end up being slaves, or worse. You might be happy to have that on your conscience but I'm not." He was virtually snarling at her now.

"Well they haven't left, Vakarian. The talk is we're going in – in 36 hours' time."

Garrus's unclenched his jaw. "What? When did they say this?"

"Orders have just come in; if you go back to your cabin they've probably left you a nice little note. And, as I've said, I've probably done everyone a favour by doing what I did, you might think it reckless but that's less trouble for us going in later rather than your lame sabotage technique." He caught a glimpse of the anger in her eyes again, "Perhaps if you have a problem with me we should settle this in the ring."

By this time, several others had come into the training room and were listening in, which was hard to avoid as Garrus' and Aelia's voices were raised to just below shouting level and were all that could be heard beside the background hum of bikes and treadmills. XO Camillius was still there and she too was listening intently.

Garrus snorted, "I can't fight you." he shook his head.

"And why is that?" Aelia asked.

This was followed by XO Camillius interrupting, "Yes, why is that, Vakarian? Better not be because she's female." The XO stood nearby, wiping her arms and face with a towel.

Aelia stood with her arms crossed in front of her.

Garrus was taken aback by the XO's intrusion into the conversation and stuttered "Well it's, it's because, I mean… it's not the female thing, it's just that, well…" He was lying about the female thing, getting that across to Camillius without sounding like a jerk was going to be difficult.

Camillius remained in position this time, tilting her head questioningly to one side.

"Well, look at her." He finally stuttered out, "And look at me."

"What?" the XO said "You being the fine male specimen that you are, what is it? Please enlighten me, Vakarian."

"I'm more than a head taller than her, I'm much bigger, and she's tiny, even by turian female standards."

"Yet she's one of the top ranked hand to hand specialists on this ship, as are you," she grinned and shook her head. "You've never fought a woman before, have you, Vakarian?"

Garrus's arguments were crumbling, he didn't want to fight her, that's exactly what he was trying to avoid. He was good at hand to hand, very very good. No other had beaten him. No other male that is.

"No, I haven't." He admitted.

The XO clapped her hands. "Well then, I think little Aelia Goran is up for the challenge."

Aelia was grinning wildly, adding chirpily "Are you up for it Vakarian, or is it too much an affront to your masculinity?"

Garrus gave her a wild look and reluctantly nodded his head, "Yes, I'm up for the challenge."

He was right about Aelia being small, although in all honesty her overconfidence gave off the illusion that she was bigger, he hadn't thought too much of it before. _Damn it, _he thought _don't think I'm going to go easy on you Goran_.


	3. The whistle blows

_Chapter 3_

_The whistle blows_

* * *

Garrus was in his quarters. The fight between him and Aelia was scheduled for 10 that evening, only 90 minutes away. He was uneasy; he usually never held back, not even in sparring sessions; many of his opponents had called his fighting style brutal, fierce and unrelenting. He wasn't sure he could be that violent with Aelia, or with any female sparring partner, but he didn't know that because he'd never fought a female before.

He'd not actually settled anything in the ring before either. He considered himself a reasonable guy; he didn't need to fight to get what he wanted. Either it was his diplomacy or it was that others on the ship knew that he was a good fighter and didn't want to get pummelled.

What little appetite he'd had before was now completely absent but he thought he would wander down to the mess anyway. When he got there, a few of the junior officers made whooping noises as he passed. He saw the other three scouts were there and grabbed a drink before heading over to their table.

Again Flavian was the first to speak, "Vakarian, I told you to talk to her not fight her in the ring."

Garrus scratched his head. "I know, I know, but she ambushed me down in the training room and I lashed out. I would have refused, but Camillius was there and she all but virtually ordered me into the fight."

Terentius started laughing "That's one woman you can't say no to."

Pen was looking incredulously at Garrus "I can't believe you're going to do it, honestly can't you solve something like this some other way?"

Flavian slapped Pen on the back, "Sometimes no Saies, you just have to fight." He turned back to Garrus "Is it true you've never fought a female before?"

Garrus nodded his head, "Opportunity has never arisen. Have any of you?"

Pen shook his head. Terentius replied, "I've mock sparred, in the bedroom of course," and he winked at Garrus.

"I have, several in fact." Flavian said. "Believe me Garrus, when I say that, yes, they are often smaller and physically weaker than us, but that makes them more cunning with their fighting style. You think you might have the upper hand, but even thinking that going into the ring is going to be your downfall. Mind you, I once fought a woman who was bigger than me, her style was more…um…masculine and that ended up exactly as you'd expect, with my face ground into the mat," he continued "I've seen Goran fight once. Another female though. Her style is clever and classy. She's small but the girls got guts."

"Well, I'm not going to take it easy on her, I know that much." Garrus said.

This time Flavian slapped Garrus on the back. "Good for you, Vakarian, you keep telling yourself that and you might start believing it, you have a reputation to uphold." All but Garrus started laughing.

Garrus returned to his quarters, not to rest, just to try and mentally psych himself for what was to come. After a while of lying down staring at the ceiling, he took a deep breath, "Okay let's go Vakarian." and headed toward the training room.

As he entered he could see more than half the crew were squashed in around the ring. Ring not being a technically accurate description - actually a large 12x12ft mat.

A fight between two of the engineering crew was in progress, people were yelling and screaming. "Holy hell" he said aloud. The majority of people were his comrade junior officers and a few enlisted recruits; he could see Wate and Wen's faces tucked up at the back of the crowd. The XO was there and several other senior officers too. Shit, the Captain's here too. _Fuck, fuck shit,_ he thought. He waded through the crowd to where the scouts had placed themselves close to the edge of the ring. Bets were being waged, a few people were calling out to him, but he ignored them.

"What are my odds?" he said to Terentius.

"Apparently if it goes to five or more rounds, you're the favourite, but a few are speculating that Goran might fell you at three. Apparently round three is when she brings out her special moves – most of her opponents have gone down in that round, so watch you don't lose the second round, Vakarian."

"Special moves?" He looked to Flavian.

"Don't look at me, I don't know what they are, I've only seen her once and to tell the truth I wasn't really there to see the fighting." He shrugged.

Terentius snorted a laugh, "I wouldn't be there for the fighting either."

Garrus looked around; he couldn't see Aelia in the crowd.

The fight amongst the engineers was coming to a finish; one was slumped partially on the ground and clinched from behind by the other. The referee, Seb Aulus, one of the senior officers in charge of the enlisted recruits, glanced towards his score keepers – two other enlisted recruits sitting at the sidelines– they nodded towards him and Aulus blew his whistle and grabbed the hand of the engineer in control of the clinch and hauled it into the air. A shout went up from the crowd.

Garrus was getting nervous – he still couldn't see Aelia, maybe she was backing out, deciding that it was a bad idea, or she just got scared; he would be relieved if any of those were true.

As the two engineers from the ring left – or in one case were carried, he saw her push her way to the front and on to the mats.

There was no escaping it now; he took a deep breath and moved to join her. She was wearing a different training outfit than the one she had had on earlier, this one was a tight one-piece covering her in a singlet-type top half and legging-like bottoms which went down as far as her spurs. He removed his loose top as any material easily gripped was a hand hold, so he stood bare chested in front of her; although this was a normal sparring outfit for him, this time he actually felt a little too naked. He looked her in the eyes and she spoke first.

"Glad to see that you're not afraid to face me, Vakarian."

"Being afraid was never the reason for not fighting you, Goran. I can't promise this will be painless for you, you can back out if you want."

She gave a contemptuous snort, "Not likely, as the XO said, I'm one of the top ranked fighters on this ship."

He laughed, "You must have forgotten Goran, she said I'm one too."

"All right, then let's start." She turned to the ref, "We're ready, Aulus".

Seb Aulus shouted for the crowd to be quiet. His voice, often heard booming through the corridors of the Nimines, was loud and resonant but it could hardly be heard above the din of the surrounding group.

"We have two new fighters here in the ring and I've got to say I'm looking forward to this. Garrus Vakarian and Aelia Goran, both are specialist hand to hand fighters. Our special scorers for this match will be…." and he moved his arm in the direction of the Captain, "Our very own Captain Mikras and XO Camillius." Aulus made a mocking bow towards them and the crowd began hooting and yelling, Aulus continued, "To the competitors I'll say – no holds below the waist, leg on leg tackling and leg on torso tackling is allowed, the rest of the rules you know so I'll not bother repeating it here, we have three two-minute periods for wrestling, at the end if it's a tie, we'll move to five and so on and so on…okay, enough of this shit, let's start" and he rubbed his talons together in glee. Aulus had a small whistle and as he blew into it, it could barely be heard above the crowd's roar.

Garrus and Aelia both stood in the neutral position sizing each other up slowly. Garrus had at least a foot and half on her in height, and at least 35 pounds in weight. She looked smaller with fewer and tighter clothes and without her boots and armour.

He lunged at her, and she toppled backwards to avoid his reach but he had grabbed her arm and yanked her onto her knees. Before she had a chance to react, he was behind her, pushing her forward with his head and with the vice-like grip still on her arm, to the ground. She was now on her stomach with only one arm free and his weight grinding into her back; the only place for her to move was to roll out from under him using his weight as momentum, which she did; he effectively moved from atop her on to his side, loosening his grip on her arm in the process; she took the opportunity to do a backwards somersault moving deftly to her feet and back to a standing neutral position.

Garrus lay on his side but rolled quickly onto his front bringing himself into a kneeling stance. He wasn't quick enough to stand though before Aelia had twisted her right leg up to give a glancing blow to his side and he once again was lying on his side on the mat. She jumped towards him and he put his arm up to ward off the assault. This time she fell flat on her back and he jumped up to a standing position before she could as well.

The whistle blew, score: 5:2.

"You sound a little out of breath Goran." Garrus was smirking.

"A little, yes, but that's just a warm up round, I'm getting into a rhythm."

The ref's whistle blew for Round Two. This time it was Aelia who lunged but her arms weren't long enough and Garrus easily dodged her grasp. He sidestepped bringing his leg up and knocking her to the side, still on her feet but stumbling, she leaned down and ran at him butting him with her shoulder but didn't have enough force for it to push him over. Having stepped back with one leg giving him a good support, his arm shot out pushing into her other shoulder and this time she didn't stumble, she fell backward landing on her behind; before he could get close though she had moved quickly back to standing and was jostling in one position with her arms out to ward off any attack.

They circled each other. She lashed out with her left leg this time kicking him in the knee; he buckled and went down on both.

The whistle blew: score 3:2

Garrus was up, he was confident he could win the next round; she was no match for his size and strength, it would all be over shortly.

Standing neutral again, Garrus spoke "C'mon, Goran, you know you're going down, I told you it would be painful, I promise not to make it humiliating for you."

"Vakarian," She shook her head, "You have no idea what I'm capable of, do you?"

"Well, you seem to be dancing around the mat, are you a good dancer, Goran, because so far I can't really say I'm in awe of your fighting skills."

Her tan face seemed to darken under her white tattoo markings. Garrus was pleased he got that reaction.

The whistle blew for Round Three before she could reply.

Garrus reached out, grabbing her by her wrist and forcing her to her knees again, and again she had no time to react before he was behind her, but this time, instead of pushing her forward, he moved his other hand around her neck placing her in a loose chokehold; he could smell her now and it was a sweaty but clean scent.

With a great deal of force she managed to move one knee forward so he couldn't push her onto her front again, using this to leverage herself to a standing position, again taking a stance that would make it difficult for him to push her to the ground.

A loud voice came from the audience that they could both hear, "Enough with the foreplay, show her the moves, Vakarian!"

She could feel Garrus's hand loosen its grip slightly at the jibe, and she took the opportunity to bend forward gripping his arm tightly and flipping him over on to his back. His legs flailed in the air as he came crashing down and she immediately jumped on top of him pinning his arms underneath her thighs and pressing down on his shoulders with all her weight.

A huge roar went up from the crowd; people previously crouched down were now standing and yelling. He was momentarily stunned by the move then began to squirm under her, but he couldn't get loose.

She was breathing heavily over him and said, "What was that you said about my fighting skills?"

The whistle blew: score 1:5

They both stood up Garrus wiped his face with the back of his hand, he was sweating profusely now as was Aelia. Towels were thrown to them. After three rounds the score was tallied at an even 9:9. There would be another two rounds.

Aulus was grinning wildly, and the crowd was still yelling, occasional whooping noises and loud whistling.

Garrus's mind was racing; _how the hell did she do that?_ Round Three, Terentius had said she pull out her special moves in Round Three. That was it, if he was unintentionally holding back he was going to let loose now, no mercy, none at all.

They faced each other again, no trash talk this time, just vicious glaring and lots of mandible flaring. Aelia had a huge grin on her face like she'd been handed some huge prize.

The whistle blew for Round Four.

Garrus ran at her, this time bending down, ramming his shoulder into her chest and sending her sprawling onto her back; he was immediately on top of her, grinding his hips between her legs in a very intimate position, although for Garrus, sex and lovemaking were far from his mind. She responded equally forcefully, wrapping her thighs around him and rolling him onto his back, this time though his arms were not pinned and he roughly pushed her from on top of him so that they were no longer in contact. She somersaulted back to standing and he bounced up from his position. They circled each other again, his talons flexing at his sides, hers assuming a defensive stance. Time seemed to be moving quicker, either that or they were tiring.

The whistle blew: score 3:2

_Fifth round – I've got to get her on this round_, Garrus thought. They faced each other, and again no words passed between them.

The whistle blew for Round Five.

Garrus came at her from the right, intending to knock her down again but now she had her arm up and it glanced off the side of his head and along his mandible fleetingly. The pain shot up his temple and he moved back quickly so that she couldn't get behind him. They both stood back in a neutral position, he rubbed his mandible, and she laughed. As she did so she also moved forward, head held high, and moved her right leg up kicking him in the side like she had in an earlier round. He lurched to the side again – she had hit another sensitive spot – he made a mental note: _prefers kicking with right leg, the left she uses for close contact kicks._ He could hear her breath was ragged and she was panting, she was tiring, but then he realised when he unintentionally began to rub his side where she had kicked him that so was he.

The whistle blew: score 1:2

Aulus' grin was from ear to ear, and the crowd went berserk when the score was read as 13 apiece.

Aulus grabbed Garrus and Aelia by the shoulders "You know what that means - two more rounds, folks. Are either of you injured?"

Garrus looked at Aelia and although his jaw throbbed and his side ached, he shook his head no; he was sure her right leg was probably bothering her; she was rubbing it vigorously although she responded with a husky "no".

"Alright then; let's continue!"

The whistle blew for Round Six.

"You know, Goran, if you're hurting we can stop," he said it with a hint of sarcasm.

"Obviously that little drumming of your jaw hasn't stopped you talking shit, Vakarian."

Garrus was taken by surprise as she made a loud grunting noise as she ran towards him, this time moving to almost hug him with her left arm out wide, instead using it to grab hold of his left shoulder then his collar and swinging her body around his till she was on his back then bringing her feet down firmly on the back of his knees. Although she was light he buckled under the pressure and fell hard and face first into the mat.

Garrus could hear the yelling and shouting of the crowd, his head was buzzing and his face was stinging from the slapping of the mat against his cheek but he could see from the side people had stood again, punching their arms in the air this time.

Aelia was still on his back but his hands were free and he used them to push his whole body up to standing, she was still gripping his shoulders but he reached around with one hand grabbing at one of her wrists, peeling her off till she slipped off his back. He could feel his collar had been scratched by her talons. He quickly lashed out with his left leg and she fell over on her side.

The whistle blew: score 3:5.

Aulus threw Garrus a towel, and he gave him a puzzled look "You're bleeding Vakarian."

That's when Garrus realised the face first into the mat had given him a bloody nose.

Aelia's breathless voice yelled, "Ready to throw in the towel Vakarian?"

"Not likely Goran." and he rubbed the towel over his face; he'd had bloody noses before so he knew he wouldn't bleed too much and he threw the towel behind him. He gave Aulus a serious look "I'm ready."

The whistle blew for Round Seven.

_This time,_ Garrus thought, _this time, little Aelia Goran, your ass is mine._ She stood breathlessly in front of him, he could see her tiring, _definitely doesn't have the stamina_.

He moved forward one small step, his reach was long enough to bring his right leg around, hitting her in the side; she staggered but didn't fall and moved forward, this time bringing her right leg up to do the same. However, Garrus was ready and he withstood the blow, barely swaying as it made contact; he then caught her leg in mid air before she could bring it back down and used the momentum she created to twist her in mid-air till she crashed down on her stomach, she didn't appear to have landed as hard as Garrus had previously, but he moved quickly on top of her, grinding his hip into her torso, pushing her legs off to the side, and pinning her underneath him.

He could hear loud hooting noises from the audience but he didn't look up. He was gripping her left hand but her right was flailing wildly trying to get a grip on some part of him but couldn't because he was dripping with sweat.

The whistle blew: score 4:2

The score was now 20 all.

On the other side of the mat, Aelia's hands were on her knees, her head was bowed down.

"Yes!" Garrus yelled and he punched his arms forward, the adrenaline now having a real impact on him.

She looked up at him and she was grinning. Her chest was heaving and he could see that she was rubbing her right leg again. More people were now crammed into the space than before. Garrus looked around: there were maybe 70 people, he couldn't believe it.

Aulus moved forward "If either of you want to stop…."

A unanimous "NO!" came from both of them.

The whistle blew for Round Eight.

With the adrenaline came more trash talk.

Aelia barked out "Vakarian, we'd make a dangerous couple, if only you were dangerous!"

"That's sweet coming from someone who still looks like they're dancing not fighting, what was that last move you made? Isn't that what humans call 'ballet' Goran?"

With that last insult she charged at him, moving quickly despite her tiredness. Garrus's own stamina was slowing and he wasn't fast enough to dodge her this time, as she opened her arms to him and then gripped him in a bear-like hug, with his arms pinned to his side. He had an advantage as it was his momentum playing a role and deciding which direction they would topple onto the mat. He moved such that they would land on her right leg. As soon as they hit they began rolling, each one trying to gain a dominant position but neither seeming able to establish total control. They rolled around for a full minute before Garrus managed to free one of his arms, but by this time Aelia had entwined her left leg with his, thus he gained nothing from freeing his arm.

The whistle blew: score 2:2.

The crowd was full of high-pitched shrieking now and Garrus was blinking wildly, the sweat dripping into his eyes making everything blurry; he grabbed another towel, wiping over his face and torso. He could see Aelia doing the same.

Aulus rasped "Spirits be damned, will one of you make it count."

The whistle blew for Round Nine.

"Are you even in the same fight I'm in Vakarian?" Aelia's voice shouted across at him.

"More than you are, sweetheart, last chance to withdraw without humiliation Goran."

"No chance," she viciously spat back at him. Garrus' smirk was a mile wide, he was getting under her skin, and he could see it in her eyes.

This time Garrus moved quickly, and now it was he who moved to put Aelia in a bear hug; despite her wriggling she couldn't free herself and he lifted her clear off the ground, her legs dangling, trying to get a foothold on his knees but she couldn't. He swirled her round and it did almost look like they were dancing cheek to cheek, the sweat of their faces mingling, but his intention was to drop her on the ground and drill her into the mat. Before he could do this, she turned her head into his jaw line and ran her tongue along the edge of his face.

He dropped her immediately in shock of the sensation and she brought her left leg up to kick his right making a swift and painful connection, "Don't call me fucking sweetheart." She whispered hoarsely. He stepped back into to a neutral standing position, she stared at him with a fierce boldness, and he in turn stared at her with disbelief.

The whistle blew.

The noise coming from the crowd now was thunderous. The Captain and XO pushed their way forward and down to the mat where Garrus and Aelia were standing. The Captain motioned to Aulus and spoke directly into his ear. Neither could hear what he was saying though.

Aulus calmly walked over between the both of them, looked each in the eye and grabbed their arms and held them in the air.

The crowd by this time was in frenzy, screaming and yelling. The Captain and XO in turn were bellowing for everyone to shut up. Aulus began blowing his whistle as loud as he could. It took a full five minutes for the crowd to quieten. Finally, after the last voice had died down, the Captain spoke.

"I call that match a draw today for several reasons," he paused, "Although they had different skills they were equally matched. What I saw between these two opponents was something I want to see in all of you," He pointed his finger around the crowd. "If you can show half the brutality, half the ferocity, half the tenacity," and he stopped to look particularly at Goran with that last comment. "That these two soldiers have shown here in this ring, we've already won the battle against these pirates and slavers and our colonists will be safe." A shout came up from the crowd.

"We have a battle to prepare for, you're all dismissed." There was a muttering from the crowd but most started to reluctantly move away.

The Captain turned to Garrus and Aelia "You two: I never want to see you fighting each other in the ring again." He turned on his heel and left; the XO followed the Captain out yet kept turning back to look at them while finally winking at Aelia and grinning broadly.

Garrus and Aelia were left facing each other. Aelia stuck her hand out, "Vakarian."

He responded, gripping her talons tightly in his own, "Goran."

As they moved with the crowd out of the training room, several people began slapping them on the shoulder and back and jostling to shake their hands. Aelia was in front of the crowd. Garrus had moved out separately but he wasn't far behind. If she had turned to look back, she would have seen his eyes watching her with a burning intensity.


	4. A peace offering

_Chapter 4_

_A peace offering_

* * *

Garrus headed straight down to the washrooms after the fight. His nose and jaw were still stinging but it wasn't painful enough to require medigel. However, his side might require some before the bruises showed.

Physically, he was tired, but mentally his mind was still racing, and as he stripped down and stood under the jets of the hot shower he couldn't help thinking about Aelia. He'd been so angry with her, and had demonstrated this in the fight; he'd almost forgotten why they were fighting in the first place. Then there was that move in the final round, where she had run her tongue along the side of his face; the sensation had so surprised him that he dropped her, and consequently the round and the match ended up a draw. He didn't know what to think.

It was over now, and Captain Mikras had announced that they were going to be sending a strike team down to the planet in approximately 30 hrs. He'd been informed that the scouting detail was to head down early evening tomorrow and set up watch for the five hours prior, with all the scouts there this time, along with a half dozen recruits and himself – but thankfully, Garrus thought, Flavian would be in charge this time. He was hoping what had transpired down in the training room would alleviate some of the tension between him and Aelia. But he couldn't be sure. The sensation of her tongue still lingered.

After putting his ship suit on again he slipped back up to his quarters to put his training outfit into his laundry bag and headed down to the mess. This time though he had an appetite. It was now after midnight and there was no general crew about, only the mess cooks, including the senior officers' cooks. They were sitting around one of the tables, having finished their shifts for the evening. He noticed Burrus Silvan, and he raised his hand to him. Silvan beckoned him over.

"Hey Vakarian, I heard about your little match tonight, sounded interesting, pity I couldn't make it" the other three cooks around the table all nodded in agreement.

"I guess so, but now I'm famished, there's nothing hot left to eat is there?" He looked hopefully over at the meal counters.

"There's a few things, just been put away so we might be able to rustle something up for you. Nine rounds, sounds like you deserve it." And he disappeared into the kitchen before coming out a few minutes later with a traditional turian stew.

Garrus sat down and Silvan placed the stew in front of him, "Thanks". He gulped it down and listened to the cooks talking about their day.

As he stood up to leave Silvan spoke. "Hang on a minute." and disappeared back into the kitchen. When he came out he handed Garrus something wrapped in baking paper. "A bit of sweet for the road Vakarian." Tupo berry slice, something he had never seen on offer in the junior officer's mess.

Garrus said his goodbyes and headed back up to his quarters. He stood in front of his door with the slice in his hands, he still wasn't tired, and his mind still racing. He rubbed his face, stared at the door for a bit longer then turned on his heel and headed towards Aelia Goran's quarters.

Aelia's quarters were at the other end of the ship from his and when he arrived he stood there for a minute thinking. _Is this a bad idea? She's probably asleep, or somewhere else…_ he looked down the corridor both ways. There was no-one about. He put his talon out to press the door buzzer but hesitated, and then he pressed it. _Yes, she's probably asleep,_ he thought and turned to go back down the corridor, but before he could move the door opened, and Aelia was standing in front of him. She was in her plain grey ship suit, but her feet were bare and he caught the faint whiff of a fragrant scent.

"Vakarian?"

"Ah yeah, hi Goran. I couldn't sleep after all that …ah… physical… you know, and I thought you might be the same so I thought…but if you're busy or just about to hit the sack I'll go…um…okay?"

She smiled at him, this time it seemed warm and inviting, "Yeah, um, I'm definitely not tired, why don't you come in?" She motioned for him to enter.

Before Garrus stepped over the threshold they glanced both ways down the corridor. The door shut behind him and he looked around her cabin.

"Hey, your quarters look bigger than mine."

"Are they?"

"Yeah, definitely bigger, mine's only about 8x6 ft, this looks around 8x10 ft, it's positively a palace. I've got enough room for a bunk and a few minor things – hell, you've even got a table…" and he glanced over to it Aelia had lain something out on cloth on top of it, it looked like pieces of a small weapon.

"Well, this part of the ship has a bit of bulkhead – maybe that's why it's bigger."

"How does one of the smallest people on the ship get one of the largest quarters?"

She shrugged "Well, I would hope the Captain and senior officers have larger quarters than mine, and they probably have a portal."

"Ah, yes, I guess they would," He shifted nervously on his feet.

"What's that?" Aelia pointed to the cake in Garrus's hands.

"Oh yeah, ah, this is, ah…a peace offering" He handed it to her.

She opened the paper, her eyes lighting up, "Oh yum, there's never anything like this on the menu down in the mess, where'd you get it?"

"Yeah, one of the cooks I know gave it to me – he works mostly for the officers and occasionally passes me tidbits."

Aelia broke a piece off and put it in her mouth "mmm" closing her eyes in the process. She offered some to Garrus and he broke some off.

"Mmmm tupo berries, yes?" She asked.

"I think so."

"Wow, I haven't had them in such a long time."

They both stood awkwardly in silence munching the cake.

When Garrus finished he said "Well, I guess I'll go – you sort of look like you're in the middle of something."

She hurriedly replied "Oh no, don't go, you can stay and, um, talk to me while I…err" and she pointed towards the table.

Garrus nodded his head "oh, okay." Garrus thought the whole exchange with Aelia was awkward and weird, they had never conversed like this before, but he wanted to stay, even if they didn't say much to each other. He just felt the need to be near her.

Garrus leant against the wall near the table and Aelia turned her attention to the contents of the cloth.

"That looks like a pistol, but I don't think I've ever seen one like that before." The barrel appeared to have a metallic red sheen to it.

"It's my Grandfather's first ever military service revolver. He gave it to me when I joined."

"Looks almost like an antique."

"Well it is, almost 60 years old." She began slowly to rub the parts with a small cloth, placing each piece delicately back on the larger cloth when she finished.

"Wow that's pretty old, how long did your Grandfather serve?"

"About 56 years."

Garrus whistled, "Impressive. So, he's retired now?"

"No. Dead," Aelia's voice was expressionless.

"Oh, sorry." Garrus winced.

"Oh, it's okay, he died four years ago – he was still in service, never left."

"What about your father? Was he in the military as well?"

Garrus noted her visibly stiffen at the question and she paused before answering, "He was, but only for two years, then he moved to civilian service."

"Civilian service?"

"He's heavily involved in politics back on Taetrus."

"Well, I guess someone has to be involved in that side of things. What does he think of you being here? Following in the family footsteps and all."

Aelia's polishing became vigorous. "He hates that I'm here, that's why I'm never going into civilian service, never going back to Taetrus."

Garrus started to get a sense of where that chip on Aelia's shoulder originated.

She turned to him, a sad look in her eyes, "It's a topic I don't talk about much, Vakarian."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…." He replied.

"My father is a very upstanding turian, he's a good man, but he's a snob. According to him the military is not the right place for his daughter. He would never have said that while my Grandfather was alive but he said it after, and at his damn funeral, and that's why I haven't spoken to him in four years." Aelia stopped polishing and began putting the pistol back together slamming the pieces together roughly, and getting visibly frustrated in the process.

Garrus gently took the 2 pieces currently in her hand "Let me." He placed a drop of gun oil for lubricant and the pieces slid together without any need of force.

"Sometimes, Aelia" his voice was quiet, "A soft approach is needed. There's no point using a nuclear weapon to drive in a nail, even if you have an arsenal at your command." He handed the pieces back to her leaning back against the wall and folding his arms.

She turned and faced him, "I'm sorry for what I did on the scouting mission, you were right it was reckless and irresponsible." She blurted out.

"I'm also sorry for my attitude towards you on our missions together."

"I…I…" Aelia bowed her head, "I guess I saw you as sort of being like my father. All caught up in being seen to do the right thing in the typical 'turian' way Without actually knowing or caring if it is the right thing," she lifted her head to look him in the eyes, "But you're not like that at all, Vakarian. Yes, you're honourable, and very 'turian', but your decisions aren't about being seen to do the right thing, you really care. Even if you are a bit stiff at times, there's fierceness in your eyes."

Garrus was taken aback at Aelia's frankness, he wasn't quite sure if this was Aelia Goran he was speaking to. "Fierceness?" he gave her a puzzled look.

"What I mean is - when I faced you in the ring tonight, you were wild and intense. It was scary. I was scared. You were fighting for a principle. I can't say that my father has principles and I can't say that I was ever scared of him."

"You didn't look scared. Plus, you held your own against me, that has to count for something," he tried to sound conciliatory.

"I'm not fierce; I think the Captain used the word tenacious, that's definitely appropriate for me." She bowed her head again, "You would have won, you know. In that last round that is. You had me in that tight grip, it was like a vice. There was no way I could get a foothold and try to bring you down. If I…if I hadn't done what I did…I would have lost for sure."

Garrus unfolded his arms, "If you're referring to that little move with your tongue, it was certainly unexpected. I can't say that I haven't thought about it though." He gave her a tense sideways glance. She looked up at him with this comment and he continued, a slight nervousness creeping into his voice, "Yes, um, it was a surprising move, er… um pleasantly surprising. Something I might expect in a more intimate setting like…like…"

"Like here?"

"Yes like here." he replied.

Aelia reached up with her hand, gently pulling his face close to hers and began to trace a sensuous line along his jaw with her tongue. Her face remained close to his when she had finished and she whispered "I've wanted to do that again since I left the training room earlier tonight. I like the way you taste."

He leaned back eyeing her carefully; he could feel the tension in the air, this time definitely sexual.

He decided a bold move was needed and moved forward encircling his long arms around her waist and kissing her hard, pushing his tongue deep into her welcoming mouth and feeling the edge of her sharp teeth. She placed both arms around his neck and jumped on him, wrapping her legs tight about his waist, resting them upon the bony protrusions of his hips.

He moved forward till her back hit the cabin wall. She grunted with the force of the collision, their mouths briefly breaking from the kiss, but her legs remaining firmly in position. His arms moved down to support her buttocks and he began to stroke her thighs with his talons.

She reached up to pull on his fringe and he rumbled at her touch. The kiss previously broken was now reconnected, allowing their tongues to entwine in battle. She let her legs slip from his waist and placed her hands on his chest, pushing him away from her as she did so.

"Take your boots off, Vakarian." Her voice was breathless and purposeful.

Garrus obeyed and removed his boots, tossing them by the cabin door. He moved forward, eager to press against her, but she grabbed him by the shirt, moving and shoving him so that it was his back now against the cabin wall. He raised his hand to stroke her face and she leaned into it, kissing the palm and each talon.

Her hands were still gripping his shirt but she slid them to the front of his pants, slowly undoing the fastenings and pulling them over his hips, moving them down his legs as she descended to her knees. Garrus lifted each leg so she could remove them fully.

She then turned her attention to his underwear, the shape of his growing erection visible underneath. Through the thin cloth she rubbed a single talon along the outside of his shaft. He shuddered at the touch, then she quickly tugged the material downward so they dropped, catching on his spurs; she delicately untangled them and he lifted each foot again so she could remove them.

He was now naked from the waist down and he looked down at her with a hunger in his eyes. Aelia placed her palm over his erection, gently encircled the shaft with her delicate talons and began squeezing. She looked up at him, satisfied that his eyes were now shut tight and his breathing shallow, then began to move her tongue along its smooth surface and over the sensitive head, careful not to raze her teeth along its edge, fellatio for turians was a dangerous game.

Garrus let out a long moan, opening his eyes to look down at her, and he reached out for her fringe, gently pulling on the ends as she continued to suck and lick him. Any pain or tiredness that had been encroaching on Garrus was now completely replaced with pleasurable bliss, but he was reaching achingly close to climax too quickly and he wanted to prolong, not end the sensation.

_Time to take control,_ he thought, and give little Aelia Goran what she seemed to be longing for, and what he longed to give, a long hard fuck. Garrus leaned down, and grabbed Aelia underneath the arms pulling her to a standing position; she was so light it was like lifting a child.

He speedily removed his top and singlet and then removed Aelia's; he ran his hand over her chest and waist and she closed her eyes and sighed at the touch. Turian females didn't have breasts as such, however their torso finely tapered to give that very illusion, and although both male and female turians had sensitive underbellies, turian female torsos were particularly sensitive when aroused.

Garrus moved close to her and they kissed, their tongues once again dancing and fighting. He moved around behind her, running his hands down her torso and towards her waist, she spooned into him and he reached his long arms down to the front of her pants, undoing the button and zip. He removed both her pants and underwear at the same time and she carefully stepped out of them.

His hand slid down between her legs, she was warm and slippery and his talons easily parted the folds of her sex. Aelia started to softly moan as Garrus's talon moved slowly in and out. He moved her slightly forward so that she was lightly pressed face first against the cabin wall and went to lift her right leg, she gave a small painful cry as he did so and he muttered an apology and lifted her left instead.

Her diminutive height compared to his meant that he had to crouch slightly so that he could enter her from behind, but she was flexible enough for him to lift her leg reasonably high. Although she was well lubricated he encountered a slight resistance, and she groaned as he finally managed to enter her. He moved slowly, thinking how tight she was around him, it felt like her muscles were constricting around him and he suddenly panicked at the thought that he might actually be hurting her.

"Aelia," he whispered into her ear, "You're not a… not a…."

"Not a what?" she asked, her voice hoarse, and then she suddenly let out a breathless laugh, "You don't seriously think that…."

"Well…you're so… so… tight." He said – he was still moving slowly inside her.

Her response was throaty, "Vakarian, don't flatter yourself, I haven't been saving myself, certainly not for you. Don't you think that perhaps because I'm smaller and you're larger that maybe that has…." But before she could continue he thrust deeply into her and she gave a surprised gasp.

He movements changed to deep thrusts now and he whispered in her ear, "Well, if that's the case then you won't care if I spoil you for the next turian who comes along."

Her moans were now becoming louder and she was having difficulty catching her breath between thrusts. She tried to speak, "Vakar…" Garrus thrust, "Vakar…" and he thrust again.

He moved his hand up to her throat and stroked it gently before purring in her ear, "I do have a first name you know, I'd like to hear you say it." he nuzzled the back of her neck as he continued his forceful thrusts into her.

Finally she relented and cried out his name "Garrus!" He wanted to rip his name from her again but slowed his pace and her loud moans changed to a soft whimpering. She reached her arm back over his head roughly caressing his fringe.

Garrus slipped out of Aelia and turned her around to face him. She put her arms around his neck and jumped on him, skewering her self back on him in the process. She placed her feet on his bony hip protrusions, allowing her more flexible movements. They kissed again, their tongues continuing their oh-so-exquisite sparring.

She moved on him in frenzy till he felt her climax, he was still not finished so began to thrust deeper into her again; she moved her feet and wrapped her thighs tightly around him, his movements became turbulent until finally he let out a long and loud roar, releasing himself into her.

He held her tightly against him and moved over to the bunk and sat down with her still intimately attached, both were still breathing heavily. He moved to lie down and she rolled off him, settling for a niche between his arm and torso with her head on his shoulder.

"I guess we could consider that a tiebreaker." She said softly.

He glanced down at her, "Yeah, but who won?"

"Shut up and go to sleep, Vakarian."

And he closed his eyes.

Garrus woke to find his morning erection being lovingly tended to by Aelia's delicate hands.

"Well, that's certainly not a strict military wake up call." He stated matter of factly.

She tilted her head and smiled, saying nothing in reply; he reached over and placed his hand gently on her face. He lay back down, closing his eyes, simply taking in the sensation of Aelia's dainty tongue moving along his length. The room was permeated with the smell of their previous night's lovemaking and he breathed in deeply, making his mandibles flare.

Aelia positioned himself on top of him, and slid onto his now very firm erection; he could still feel how tight she was but she was hot and wet and as she leaned forward to place her hands on his face, tenderly kissing him, he let out a velvety moan.

She ran her tongue along the side of his face and he laughed, bringing his hand to the back of her neck and moving up to tug on her fringe. He looked into her eyes; this was not quite what he was expecting from little, feisty, Aelia Goran.

She sighed and he moved his hands to stroke her belly and thighs. She moaned softly as she moved; at the sight of her so enjoying herself Garrus began to slightly increase his thrusts, whilst still enjoying the gentle pace at which they were moving.

Aelia moved forward placing her hands on his shoulders and looked into his eyes, "Vakarian, you are a very good turian. A very…very good turian." Although the bed was narrow, there was enough room for him to turn her over and she once again wrapped her flexible thighs around him.

He started to move deeper into her before speaking. "I told you I have a first name, and I want to hear you say it."

"Make me," she said teasingly.

Garrus increased his tempo, moving faster and driving into her harder, and she whimpered with each thrust he made. She was coming close to orgasm, Garrus could feel her insides tightening around him, he roughly pushed into her and as she began to moan his name, saying "Garrus!" over and over, he smiled and gave in to his own climax. _I've definitely won this round_, he thought.

Garrus rolled off Aelia and sat at the edge of the bed; she sat up and kissed his back and his shoulder.

He turned to her and spoke, "I guess I should go get changed, the next couple of days are going to be intense."

She nodded her head in agreement. They both dressed, coyly looking at each other, giving each other occasional smirks. He moved to the door.

"Aelia, I'm glad we sorted this out."

"I'm glad we did too, Vak… Garrus."

Garrus opened the cabin door and stepped out into the corridor. It was now about 9 am. He and the scouts were due to go on duty about 3 pm, and supposedly heading down to the planet at 6 pm, giving him plenty of time for preparations, having something to eat, perhaps a shower, although he liked having Aelia's scent on him and he didn't want to remove it just yet.

When he got within view of his own cabin, he could see Flavian and Terentius loitering nearby.

"What are you guys doing here?"

"Where have you been, Vakarian? I've been trying to raise you for the last hour. Terentius and I have just been speaking with Captain Mikras…." Flavian stopped talking and sniffed the air. "Terentius, can you smell what I smell?"

Terentius moved his head slightly, a grin slowly emerging on his face. "Sure can, Flavian, sure can."

Garrus looked at both of them, he knew where the conversation was headed but conceded nothing to either of them until breaking out into a sly grin; Flavian and Terentius began bellowing with laughter.

"Okay, you two have had your fun; what was the Captain saying, Flavian?" Garrus asked.

"Well, first, I'd like to say that I'm glad things are "sorted" between you and Goran, Vakarian, because there's been a development down on the planet."

"What's happened?"

"It looks like that little data pad that was retrieved had some interesting information on it."

Garrus asked, "They managed to decrypt it?"

"Yes, well, most of it and it looks like we've got more than just batarians to worry about."

"Who?"

"Eclipse mercenaries."

_Shit, biotics_. "Why the hell are the Eclipse sisters getting involved with batarians? Mercenaries aren't usually interested in purchasing slaves, and batarians have their own muscle, they don't trust the asari normally."

"Well that's what's got Mikras worried, and to add to the confusion there's been some chatter on the comm channels. Looks like they might be getting geared up to move out. He wants us to head down to the planet within the next hour. Scouting duty has just been bumped up, so if you don't mind, go fetch your little sparring partner – and I'll see you both down in the docking bay in half an hour."

Garrus turned back down the corridor to Aelia's quarters.

"Oh, and Vakarian," Garrus turned back to hear Flavian say, "Don't bother showering; when I shove my rifle up a batarian's ass I want you around so he can remember what being fucked by a turian smells like."

The two scouts turned, their laughter echoing down the hallway.


	5. Just following orders

The group were assembled in the docking bay; Garrus, Aelia, Flavian, Terentius, Pen. Wate and Wen had been assigned as well as the new scouting recruit, Leta Manius; the gangly young turian female wasn't the least bit as cute as Terentius had said, _definitely not my type, _he thought. Captain Mikras and the XO had come down to brief them before they left.

"Now, I don't want to get too heavy handed with you, but if you lot do anything like you did on the last scouting mission – there's going to be more than citizenship tier dropping, is that understood?" The Captain said.

A collective "Aye" rang out from the group.

"The XO's going to brief you, I'm going to prep for our retrieval team" he then left the docking bay.

The XO handed Flavian a datapad, "Flavian, everything you need is there. I want a report back from you as soon as you get near the batarians' landing zone, hopefully that will be within the hour. We want to get in and get out as soon as we can so keep us posted on anything unusual or if they look like they're going to run."

Flavian nodded a response.

Camillus turned to leave but added "Oh- and if you come across any other munitions huts – keep those fucking two away from them." She pointed to Garrus and Aelia.

"Yes Ma'am," Flavian said.

As she walked out Camillius shouted back "don't call me that, Flavian."

"Yes M…" The team stifled a laugh.

Pen moved into the pilot's seat of the scout ship, the rest crammed in the back and they set off from the Nimines. It took a while longer to get down to the planet as the Nimines had removed itself to the far side of the planet's moon after the munitions hut incident, but they soon set themselves down on the planet's humid surface once more.

As they trudged through the harsh vegetation the mood of the group was much more sombre this time – not even the recruits were speaking amongst themselves. They finally reached the small clearing and Garrus could see debris scattered a fair distance across the landscape. Flavian motioned for the group to stop while urging Garrus to the front.

"Vakarian; is that a ship?"

Garrus looked through the scope of his sniper rifle, "Yep, looks like an Eclipse shuttle, and they're loading something into it – crates or something, and there's two unarmed batarians and an armed Eclipse , but I can't see…wait…." Garrus could see the outlines of what appeared to be turians, and he turned to Flavian, "Shit, it looks like some of our colonists are there too."

Flavian replied, "Hell, what are they doing, how many?"

Garrus continued to look through the scope, shaking his head as he reported, "I can't see how many there are, they're on the other side of the shuttle, all I can see is…maybe a child or a female." Garrus placed the rifle on the ground "I'm going to have to get in closer – or you're going to have to send someone closer to report back."

Flavian turned to Terentius, "You go around, get as close to that shuttle as you can without being seen." Terentius nodded and headed off.

Flavian turned to the newest scout, "Manius, head back to the scout ship – tell the Nimines what's going on and that they better get their ass down to the planet ASAP otherwise there may be fewer colonists to rescue. Tell them we need some instructions."

The group sat, again the conversation was minimal, and the recruits looked edgy. Garrus kept his eye on the shuttle, the batarians had sat themselves down and were smoking, the Eclipse merc he saw moving around with them had moved out of eye shot. It was a full 25 minutes until Terentius returned and he didn't look like he had good news.

"There's about 8 women and 5 children sitting down on the other side of that shuttle, Flavian, also 6 armed Eclipse sitting down with them and it looks like they're going to be heading out shortly."

Manius had also just returned. "Orders are straight forward Flavian, sit tight till they arrive – they'll be here within the hour."

"Shit," Flavian exclaimed, "It's going to be too late."

"We're going to have to stop them leaving, Flavian." Aelia said, "If they leave, then they're lost to us."

Garrus spoke looking at Aelia, "Goran's right, we can't let them leave, we have no idea where they're headed or why the Eclipse have them."

Flavian took a deep breath. "Yes, we have to do something but we're going to have to do this quietly – we can't alert the other batarians in the compound to our presence. There's at least another 25 turians unaccounted for and we can't put them at risk, but how the fuck are we going to do this…"

The group stood in contemplation before Aelia piped up.

"We let them leave," she said.

Flavian shook his head, "Huh?"

"What I mean is – we let the batarians think that it's the Eclipse shuttle leaving, but it will be one of us piloting – Pen can fly pretty much anything, he can take them safely back to the Nimines and the Batarians will be none the wiser."

Terentius spoke, "But what if they do get alerted, Goran, if they hear even a single shot from a rifle they'll know."

She shook her head. "I'm not sure, but we can't let them leave."

Garrus spoke, "There is a risk that we could alert them to our presence, but I think it's small, I think we can do it, and the retrieval team can come in and storm the compound – the Captain's big surprise won't be spoiled."

Flavian rubbed his hand along his mandible. "Okay, let's think about this for a moment… Garrus, how would you be sniping from here?"

"Distance is not an issue with this gun, Flavian." He ran his hands along the rifle's barrel, "It's just that I don't have a clear view, I'll have to move around and get a bit closer."

"Good, the rest of us – let's stick to pistols and hand-to-hand only; any of you that have silencers put them on, anything else is going to be too noisy," Flavian looked the rest of the team in the eye before turning to Garrus, "Okay, Garrus, you get yourself to the best possible position you can; Wate, Wen and Terentius, I want you to go around to the other side of the clearing and wait for my signal; Goran, Saies, Manius and I will go to where the turians are sitting and try and get them into the undergrowth before we start any fight."

"How are you going to do that?" Manius' voice had a panicky sound to it.

"Smoke bomb – Saies, I want you to guide the colonists into the undergrowth until we have the all clear to move back into the shuttle, then you can fly them the hell out of here."

"I won't be able to see shoot anything with all the smoke…" Garrus said.

Flavian said," Well, hopefully we'd have handled anything major, you'll just have to wait till it clears – anything with a blue head should be easy enough to aim for." Garrus nodded.

"Okay, we move now, I'll throw the smoke bomb as soon as the Batarians have returned to the compound."

Garrus moved around to a position he was comfortable with, thoughts on what had happened in the days leading up to this moment were playing at the back of his mind. He wanted everything to go right this time. Even though he knew they were going against orders – he knew it to be the right thing to do. His heart was beating wildly in his chest.

He still couldn't see all the mercs – but he had four in his sight, Most of the turians were sitting on the ground, some of the children were standing, they all looked scared. The batarians were talking to the merc closest to the ship but then they started moving back to the compound. He kept his sight trained on the departing batarians, after about five minutes he was sure they'd be back at the compound now. He trained his sight on the merc standing closest to him, the one closest to the shuttle doors, just outside the smoke bomb zone; she had red markings on her face, _a perfect target_ he thought.

The smoke bomb went off.

He let his sniper rifle off; it went hurtling towards the merc, hitting her right in the forehead. A puzzled look arose on her face before she collapsed dead on the ground.

He heard a few cries, mostly turian voices, and saw the flash of blue biotics through the smoky haze. Minutes passed. "C'mon clear dammit!" he could hear the dull thuds of missed fire hitting the shuttle, but he still couldn't see anything.

Then it cleared and it was Aelia's tattooed face he could see fighting hand-to-hand. She had that angry look on her face that he remembered from their fight in the ring; he smiled, because now he knew that it was directed elsewhere. He tried to get a clear shot of the merc and when the back of her head finally came into view, he lined up a shot, and fired. Aelia's pretty face had a stunned look to it, that and it was now covered in what was left of the asari's brains; she turned and disappeared into the smoke again. He lined up another shot. He could see Wate, then Wen, then one more blue head, bang, dead. A few more minutes passed, but it seemed longer and his heart was still racing.

When the smoke finally cleared he could make out five figures on the ground. He saw that one of the mercs was being held by Terentius and Wate, four figures on the ground were the other asari, and the fifth was turian. It was Aelia. Garrus' heart leapt from his chest into his throat, "No!" he yelled. This little turian female who had caused so much angst to him over the last few months was now lying on the ground, possibly dead, and he didn't want that. He grabbed his rifle and sprinted towards the shuttle across the clearing.

He'd never run so fast in his life, and he was breathing hard when he reached them. Flavian and Terentius were hovering over Aelia, he couldn't see her.

"What…what's happened?" his voice was full of dread. "Is she dead?"

Flavian and Terentius turned to face Garrus. A small voice making spitting noises piped up from behind them.

"Not likely, Vakarian, just took a little tumble, must have been that delicate tidbit of brains I just swallowed," she continued to spit bits of asari flesh from her mouth. "Thank you kindly for the gift but I prefer Tupo berry slice," She gave him a wide smile.

The relief washed over Garrus' face and Terentius and Flavian helped Aelia to her feet.

Aelia reached over putting her hand on Garrus's arm. She nodded. He did the same.

Flavian turned his attention to the Eclipse merc being held by Terentius and Wate.

"Why were you moving these people? Mercs aren't known for being slavers."

The asari said nothing, a smirk rising to her face. Flavian ended it with a rifle butt. Her head and body slumped down.

The colonists slowly came out of the undergrowth, a few still coughing, some of the children were crying. Flavian asked if anyone of them knew why they were being moved. An elderly woman moved forward.

"All we know is that they were taking us somewhere for sale, they took blood samples from us, all 38 of us, later they separated us out and said based on those samples we were being sold to this group or person called the collector."

"The collector?"

One young turian woman grabbed Flavian's arm as he answered, wailing "My children are still in there!" and she pointed to the compound and began weeping, "Please help me get them back, please!"

Aelia moved to the woman, taking her by the arm "Its okay, the military are coming; your children will be safe."

Garrus noticed the calmness and the compassion in Aelia's voice.

Flavian spoke, "Saies and Wen, get these people on board and off this damn planet, we'll sort this 'collector' business later. The rest of you: first move these bodies into the undergrowth; I don't want them spotted, then head back to our original spot at the edge of the clearing. We'll sit there till the retrieval team arrives."

The turian colonists were loaded onto the shuttle and Pen departed for the Nimines.

They didn't have to wait long for the rest to arrive, it was 15 minutes and the retrieval team ship landed in the same clearing, comm channel silence now broken. The batarians knew they were here now, but it was a hell of a surprise. The scout group maintained their position and Garrus was left looking through his sniper rifle occasionally taking pot shots at any batarians he saw walking along the compound's western wall.

Wen and Wate were both grizzling, "Why can't we join them?" Wen asked.

Flavian rolled his eyes, "Just shut the fuck up, you two, our teams have disobeyed enough orders in the last two days. Let the retrieval team do its job."

Aelia chimed in. "If you want to be good little turians, then listen to Flavian, he's in charge." She was looking at Garrus when she spoke and she winked, "You should always listen to who's in charge."

Garrus and the rest of the group started laughing.


	6. Last taste

_Chapter 6_

_Last taste_

* * *

The scout ship arrived back on the Nimines. They had been down on the planet for seven hours. It was early evening; they were all tired and hungry. All the colonists were alive, a few minor injuries: sprains and strains mostly. They had batarian prisoners now, and one asari who they would hand over to the turian authorities on Palaven. If anyone could find out information on 'the collector' it was the office of the Primarchs. They would make it their business.

Despite their disobeying orders, the Captain had praised the scouts' bravery, and it seemed the incident of the munitions hut was wiped from the Captain's memory, for which Garrus was grateful. He hoped further missions with the scouts weren't to be so 'complicated'.

The group gathered at the far end of the docking bay in the crew prep area, all were still in their armour. Flavian moved to a crate positioned behind him, opening it up to reveal half a dozen items and some personal effects, packed away ready for him to depart the Nimines for good.

He brought out a blue coloured bottle, "This," he said "I've been saving for a special occasion, and right now I can't think of any group I'd rather be sharing it with." Some cups were rustled up and the bottle passed around.

Flavian hoisted his cup in the air "Here's to a successful mission, with a few minor hiccups" and he nodded towards Garrus and Aelia.

"To a successful mission" all said in unison and raised their cups as well.

"Pity there's only that one bottle to go round." Wate said.

"If you require something stronger, lad, then why didn't you say before we poured you that cup?" Terentius pulled out a flask from under his armour shoving it towards the recruit and grabbing Wate's cup in the process. "Here, drink this, and we'll stick to the good stuff that Flavian has kindly offered."

"Where did you pull that from, Terentius?" Aelia said, "No, wait, I don't want to know, just as long as you're not expecting anyone but the dim-witted recruits and yourself to drink it."

"Hey, who are you calling dim-witted?" Wen whined in reply.

Garrus interjected, "You of course; when you get an appreciation for a finer class of alcohol, then you'll deserve to question the moniker Goran has just given you." The scouts in the group laughed.

After an hour of chatting and a bit more drinking, most of the group left the docking bay to return to their quarters. Aelia and Garrus headed to the crew quarters together and as they walked they gave each other furtive looks.

"You had some pretty smooth moves down on the planet, Goran."

"Pity you weren't in the fray, Vakarian, you would have been dangerous."

Garrus laughed, "I thought you said I wasn't dangerous."

"When did I say that?"

He looked at her a smile on his face "When you were trash talking me, remember?"

"Oh yeah, now I remember. Nah, you're pretty dangerous." She nudged him with her elbow.

"Thanks, you're pretty fierce and …"

"And…" she motioned for him to continue.

"It was nice to see the other side of you, Goran, the softer side, the one who seems to care." His voice was earnest.

"How do you mean?" She replied.

"When you spoke to that woman about her children, you sounded genuine. Like it was more than just your duty to calm her down. If you let that side of you be seen more you might make a good upstanding turian woman yet."

Aelia snorted "We'll see, Vakarian, we'll see."

They arrived at Garrus' quarters first. They stopped and looked at each other; Garrus had his back to the door. They both knew what would happen next. Aelia pressed the button to open the door and pushed him roughly through the opening before anyone could see. The door closed behind them and both hastily removed their armour.

They both stank, the smell of their sweat and grime of the fight and the planet's jungle was thickly on them, they didn't care. They were naked and kissing in a matter of minutes, he was already hard, and she already wet. They clung together as he pushed her onto his bunk, entering her quickly and brusquely, as he did he let out a low growl and she responded with a high pitched whine, which continued to build the harder Garrus thrust into her. They continued their fevered pace until both came quickly. Garrus's head remained buried in her neck and she stroked his fringe as his weight grew heavy on her.

Eventually, he rolled off her on to his side and he stroked her torso lightly with his talons, she shivered and closed her eyes. They didn't speak. In one hand he rested his head; with the other he moved his talons down to trace the swollen flesh of her entrance, her juices were sticky and sweet, he moved them gently into her, first one, then two talons, and he watched her intently as she writhed her hips in response.

Aelia rubbed her torso following sensuous lines up and down her sides. Garrus kept moving his talons in and out of her, he could see the pleasure building in her sweet face, and her breath was ragged with desire. He increased the rhythm at which his talons moved and she began to toss her head from side to side. He removed them and quickly manoeuvred himself to kneeling between her legs before she could open her eyes.

He pulled her legs up, she squealed at the sudden movement, and he hooked her knees over his elbows and buried his head in the soft folds of her flesh, lapping at the watery fluid now copiously flowing from her. Her spurs dug into the flesh of his arms but he was numb to the pain, so intent on giving her gratification.

His talons massaged her outer thighs and as he stuck his tongue inside her, she moaned deeply in response. Garrus could feel her internal muscles beginning to spasm and her head movements became disorderly. Her moaning was so loud now, Garrus was convinced that anyone coming down the corridor outside would hear, but again he didn't care, so enjoying this moment of control he had over her.

Aelia grabbed at him wildly till she gave one final shudder and let out a long and guttural moan. Garrus remained in a kneeling position between her legs as he laid her down so that now her bottom, rather than suspended in the air, was lying flat and he reached his hand to her face, his talons outlining her mouth. She grabbed his hand and sucked each talon willingly.

She was still breathing heavily when she spoke. "You know, you really shouldn't torment me so…"

Garrus replied mockingly, "Me? Torment? At the moment I'd say that only one of us is tormented." He looked down towards the direction of his now rock-hard erection, her eyes followed.

She laughed, "I guess you want me to assist you in releasing this torment?"

"It's the least you could do considering…." His look was lustful. He so wanted to slam himself into her but the build up and the teasing was so exquisitely erotic he held back. He would let her make the next move.

She sat up, giving him a contemplative look, moving her talons to stroke her mandible and tilting her head from side to side. "Mmmm." Was all she said. Garrus let out a sigh and she laughingly responded "They say patience is a virtue, Vakarian."

"Whoever 'they' are Aelia, they obviously weren't hanging around with the most rigid erection they can ever recall having."

She laughed again and finally turned around placing herself on all fours, Garrus' eyes widening as she did. She turned to look at him. "I want you to fuck me so hard, Vakarian, that I feel like I'm travelling through to another galaxy without the use of a ship or a mass relay."

Garrus felt himself almost die solely from the pleasure of her request. He gulped loudly, and positioned himself behind her. He entered her with a grunt. He moved slowly at first, the sound of their flesh meeting making little sound. He concentrated, closing his eyes, moving himself in and out, still so beautifully tight, he thought.

She was breathing heavily and he began to move faster, his rhythm was quietly building, until he really was slamming hard into her, she moaned and whimpered, Garrus grunted and groaned, the sound of flesh melting into one another was like a beat of a drum. He tried to concentrate, tried to make it last as he drove into her further but he couldn't hold back any longer and he bellowed out a long intense growl as he felt himself spend inside her. "Garrus!" Aelia cried out his name. He was smiling as he collapsed on top of her, but rolled quickly so that both were lying on their sides, Aelia spooned into him, "Garrus." She murmured.

They lay for a good 15 minutes catching their breath, settling into each other's bodies, entwining their talons together. Finally Garrus spoke.

"I was going to ask you something, but feel free to refuse."

"If you want to do that to me again, you'll have to wait till I've at least refuelled." She said.

"No, not that."

"Then what is it Vakarian?"

"Considering we're the top ranked hand-to-hand on the ship, do you want to be my sparring partner?"

She remained hushed for a moment before responding. "Yeah, okay, that works for me, sure. If I had a drink in my hand, I'd raise a toast to sparring."

"And I'd raise one to tiebreakers." Garrus added.

They both laughed.

Both were silent before Aelia said "About this…."

"Yeah, about this…." He sighed.

"We can't let it get in the way of work or whatever else we're doing." She said earnestly.

"I agree. We're young, we've got lots ahead in our lives, responsibilities."

Aelia's eyes got a faraway look in them "Yes, responsibilities."

They both closed their eyes and Garrus fell into a dreamless sleep.

Over the coming weeks and months life as part of the turian military continued. Garrus was now spending less time with the scouts and more time down in the main battery working on the ship's weaponry. The times he did go out on missions it was usually as a specialist sniper with other soldiers and not the recon teams.

He and Aelia continued their sparring partnership; their discussions on justice, universal events, on what it meant to be truly good, were heated and passionate, but the tiebreakers, the physical releases they sought with each other through sex, were fewer and far between, both too busy or too exhausted, too worried they might get caught, they liked each other's company but both were conscious of the rules. It was almost eight months to the day after the munitions hut incident when Captain Mikras summoned him. This was a rare occasion; Garrus was nervous.

Garrus stepped out of the elevator onto the Nimines bridge. He'd only been on this level a few times and most of them had been in the last few months to assist with calibrating the main weapons into the bridge controls. It was still new to him.

The Captain was talking to the navigator when he approached. "Vakarian."

"The XO said you wanted to speak to me, sir."

"Yes, that's right. We've had a request involving you."

"A request?"

"Your father, he's well-known and well-respected in many circles."

"Yes, he is, sir."

"He obviously has a great sphere of influence, one that even stretches into the turian military. You've been offered a place at Citadel Security."

"C-Sec?"

"That's right, and you'll be leaving on a shuttle for the Citadel in an hour-and-an-half."

Garrus' voice was alarmed "An hour-and-an-half? But I've got…."

"Whatever it is that you've 'got' Vakarian, can easily be handled by someone else, you're not irreplaceable."

Garrus bowed his head. "Yes, sir."

Mikras held out his hand. "Good luck, Vakarian, you've been a good turian soldier, C-Sec is lucky to have you."

Garrus grabbed the Captain's hand "Thank you, sir" and he moved to the elevator feeling a little shell-shocked.

He went back to his quarters and started gathering his things together, his mind racing a hundred miles an hour. He always knew that he'd end up in C-Sec, but they usually didn't recruit turians until you reached 25, he was now only 23. His father must have pulled some strings to get him there. Hell, he thought, he looked at the time. I'll be off the ship before anyone else knows, _before Aelia knows_.

Everything he had experienced in the last year had come flooding back to him. His passion had been ignited by a fiery little turian female, and it continued to burn. Everything he did he felt he had more passion for; he knew that this is what he wanted, to fight injustice at the heart of civilisation, and C-Sec would be the place to do it. He went to see if she was in her quarters. He ran down the corridor, bumping into Terentius on the way.

"Vakarian, why the hurry?"

"I'm leaving"

"On a mission? Yeah, so what."

"No, not a mission, I'm leaving the ship, the military, I'm going to C-Sec and the Citadel."

"What? Now? Right now?"

"In about an hour."

"Oh, hell that's soon."

"

Do you know where Goran is?"

Terentius smiled, "One last little tryst, Vakarian?" _always with the innuendo_; Garrus laughed

"No, just want to let her know."

"Well, you can't, she's out on a scouting mission, and not due back for another few hours."

Garrus must have looked dejected because Terentius replied, "Don't worry, Vakarian; a few of us will come down to kiss you goodbye." He slapped Garrus on the back before heading down in the direction of the mess.

Garrus finished gathering up his things and headed down to the docking bay. He was surprised to find a few people were there to see him off. Terentius, Manius, Wen and Wate had come down, a few people he'd worked with in engineering and even Silvan was there. They all shook Garrus' hand, wished him the best of luck and he thanked them all, wishing that he had longer so they could all have a drink together before leaving.

Then he saw her, she was still in her armour, she ran towards him.

"I just heard, Vakarian, is it true?" she was breathless; he could see Pen just behind her.

Pen moved to shake his hand. "Vakarian, good luck, I hope all goes well."

"Thanks, Pen."

He turned to Aelia, "It's true, I'm going to the Citadel and to C-Sec."

The shuttle's engines began to start up as the rest of the shuttle was being loaded.

"You'll fit right in, Vakarian, they're a pretty uptight bunch, I hear."

Garrus laughed. "Yeah, I know, my father was one of them, and he's one of the most uptight turians I know."

They just stared at each other.

"I wanted to tell you," she said, "After all those talks we had…I've spoken to my father."

Garrus nodded, "That's good. Like I said, you'll make a good turian yet."

"It's a start, there's a lot of fences needing mended," she laughed. He savoured the sound of her voice.

They were both conscious of the others looking at them and the shuttle was gearing up to leave so Garrus held out his hand, "Good luck, Goran."

She looked at his hand but instead of taking it, she jumped on him, her arms about his neck, her legs entwining his waist, their armour making a clinking noise as they connected. She ran her tongue along the edge of his face and she kissed him before untangling herself from him and dropping back to the ground.

"One last taste, to remember the good turian. Goodbye, Garrus."

"Goodbye, Aelia." He stepped into the shuttle.

He waved to all of them. He knew it would be the last time he would ever see Aelia, but the sensation of her tongue once again lingered.

_Garrus walked from the main battery over to Miranda's office, quietly entering and giving the Cerberus operative time to look up._

"_Garrus, what can I do for you?" Miranda seemed pleased at the distraction._

_Garrus scratched his head, "I was wondering if you could do me a favour."_

"_Depends what it is." her voice matter-of-fact._

"_I'm looking for some information on someone. A turian."_

"_Well, you'll have to be a bit more specific than that," she said "Who is it?"_

"_Someone I think is still in the turian military but I'm not sure, it was a long time ago."_

"_Well, Cerberus has lots of information on the turian military," she gave him a slightly guilty look. "What's their name?"_

"_Her name is Aelia Goran, and she's from Taetrus. I served with her on the Nimines, but I have no idea where she went after that." _

_Miranda raised her eyebrows, "Been a bit of trouble on Taetrus lately, Garrus."_

"_I know." He sighed._

"_Give me a minute; I'll see what there is." Garrus paced the room as Miranda began typing information into her terminal. Ten minutes later Garrus was still standing there, maybe there was no information._

"_Here you go." She passed over a datapad. "Took a while, and there's not a lot of info but it's all up to date."_

"_Thanks, Miranda." Garrus headed out to the mess. Only Gardner was there so he sat down at one of the mess hall tables._

_Despite the fact that Miranda had said there wasn't much – it appeared to be quite comprehensive._

_It had Aelia's birth date and place of birth, her mother and father – her father Illo Goran, was part of Primarch Idus Valen's contingent, Aelia had mentioned he was in politics but she made no mention of a connection with the Primarch. _

_Garrus read on. Joined the military at 15, two commendations for bravery, left the military to become an assistant to her father at 26. Married former turian military commander and now head of Taetrus police force Sal Lartius 16 years older than her. One child, a son, Gellius. Still residing on Taetrus. _

_He scrolled down; it had her list of achievements in Taetrus society, her increases in citizenship tiers had been rapid - she was a philanthropist and society queen, much needed support for her father and husband – all pointed to the upstanding citizen she had become. _

_There were pictures too, Aelia and Lartius on their wedding day. Society page images of her in new season fashions. Another picture, the family, including Aelia's father, pictured with their baby son. She looked happy, her pretty face was beaming with a huge smile. There were also recent images of Aelia taken at charity events for victims of the Vallum Blast, another taken during an extranet interview with Taetrus Primarch Idus Valen during the aftermath. She stood between her husband and father, a serious but concerned look on her face. _

_Garrus traced his talon over the last image of Aelia and contemplated the divergent paths they had taken; she had become all the things that she had originally tried to rebel against, whereas he had become the opposite, rebelling against the turian way, against the will of his family, particularly his father, following his own sense of honour and justice. The last few years had been the darkest in his life; he faced situations that called into question the very idea of what it meant to be turian. It was Aelia who ended up being the 'good turian' not he. _

_Garrus went back to the main battery; he put the datapad in his trunk and began working on the Normandy's weapons system. He was distracted. His thoughts were not on past missions, comrades gone but not forgotten, passionate trysts, or of relationships that might have been. Nor was it of the danger they were facing, the collectors, the reapers, or a mission that was certain suicide. He stroked his unscarred mandible. All he could think about was what sensation might linger from a pair of gentle human hands and soft warm lips._

* * *

Well I hope you enjoyed my little labour of love - once again I would like to thank Aricle from Clan V for her useful comments and editing as well as her suggestions for titles for the last 2 chapters, the girl deserves a giant Garrus plushie for her efforts! LovgrenO has also added to his art collection - a little fight scene between Aelia and Garrus, so head over to Deviantart to check it out!


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